The Celebrity Shopping Trolley - Linda Papadopoulos

Is Psychologist Linda Papadopoulos Off Her Trolley?

Michael van Straten asks the question after poking his nose into her shopping trolley.

Linda Papadopoulos is highly intelligent, very beautiful, great at her job and has a string of qualifications that most women think would be a real turn off for most men.

WRONG! When I interviewed Raquel Welch on her 50th Birthday, she told me that she believed the sexiest part of any woman’s body was her brain.

Well OK, I guess she could afford to say that, but she was so right. And Linda’s awesome brain power is enough to make her one of the sexiest of women. She looks great, sounds so clever and intelligent and does all that media stuff as well as caring for patients, doing research and writing books.

I don’t believe she would be any different on a diet of Big Macs, Coke and apple pie – it is all in her genes. But just in case you get the wrong idea, her diet is really pretty good.

Breakfast of yoghurt with granola and pancakes at the weekend is good, depending on what is in the pancakes. A sprinkle of sugar and lemon juice is one thing, but a ladle full of chocolate sauce or five rashers of fried bacon - Linda studied in Canada, so bacon with maple syrup could be her favourite - is something else.

Lunch is often the raw fish Superfood, sushi; at home it’s soup or salad and her top choices are Caesar or Niçoise, both a good mixture of healthy, fresh ingredients. The weekend special is Lebanese meze. This combination of lots of separate dishes is one of my favourites too. Hummus, stuffed vine leaves, broad beans, tabouleh salad, peppers, aubergine, spinach and cheese Spanakopita, falafel, tsatsiki of yoghurt, cucumber, mint and garlic; the list is endless, delicious and your five portions of veg in one meal.

When it comes to dinner, grilled fish or chicken with fresh vegetables tops the list, but the sword fish should be off the menu as it can contain the highest concentration of toxic mercury. People worry about getting rid of their old amalgam fillings, which is just an unnecessary money making racket, but the heavy metal from fish does accumulate in the body tissues.

Linda also enjoys cooking stir fries as well, and this is one of the healthiest methods as it uses very high temperatures, little oil and is done in the shortest time.

Snacks of dark chocolate, nuts and dried fruit is excellent so long as the chocolate is used in moderation, for its energy, antioxidants and, of course, pleasure. Nuts provide slow release energy and heart protective oils, as well as B vitamins and essential minerals like selenium.

Alcohol is not on Linda’s wish list – she doesn’t like it much, but does love fresh juices and tries to have one every day. But the great confession? ’I also like to drink Coke’, says our psychologist, but I bet she knows it is full of caffeine, contains around ten teaspoons of sugar per can and rots your teeth.

Apart from a shell fish allergy, in fact one of he most common, there are no food problems and this is a pretty healthy diet, as you can see from Linda’s top 5 food items at the supermarket. Hummus, bell peppers, yoghurt, bananas and whole grain bread would all be nutritious items to add to any shopping trolley and they taste great too.

Linda says her vices are chocolate, popcorn and coke, but for me, her worst vice is turning herself into a saleswoman and joining some of the dreadful product pushers on QVC.

I don’t know any NHS Consultant dermatologist who would put their name to a commercial product and some people may think that doing so detracts from Linda’s genuine professional and academic persona.

But I still think her mind makes her one of the sexiest women, and it can’t hurt that she looks so great too.